


Acting

by Serial



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Apocalypse, F/F, First Kiss, First fic!! Hi im a baby, Teen Romance, Teenagers, a snippet of a story I'll never write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 13:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11898294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serial/pseuds/Serial
Summary: She still had to remind herself that you don't have to act all of the time.Sometimes, however, acting was necessary.





	Acting

**Author's Note:**

> HhEEY I wrote this in the car ride my family took coming home from the eclipse! We got stuck in traffic in an internet dead zone so the fanfictions I had opened earlier all wouldn't load!! This is kinda my first fic I've ever uploaded so uh!! If you have any feedback or anything id love to hear it ;0 
> 
> This is kind of a snippet from a sequel-type story to Gravity Falls?? I dont have the time, patience, passion, or skill to write anything that big right now so I hope this gets the emotion I was going for across without any other context needed.
> 
> Thank you for reading! <3

As if the earth itself inhaled and _screamed,_ the arid clifftop wind of Gravity Falls' mountains was broken by hot, sulforous air blasting through the blue portal that sucked everything, from the plants to the sunlight, through its blinding, gaping maw. Two teenage girls were blown back by the explosion, the sounds of sirens and screams tainting the usually serene mountaintop. 

**"I CAN'T SEE YOU BUT I CAN FEEL YOU AND I CAN CATCH YOU"** Cipher's layered voice tore through the portal. There seemed to be a fresh lilt of instability laced in his cries. **"HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO CATCH A SHOOTING STAR?"**

Mabel Pines and Pacifica Northwest cowered in one anothers' arms, a few meters away from the portal. Smudged nail polish and smeared eyeliner clung together, unbelieving at the voice of the demon that wrought hell upon Gravity Falls a short two years ago filtering through their ears. 

A huge, inky black arm slid through the portal, white lightning bolts shooting out from added friction. The girls shrieked, pulling each other up and back from the blindly sweeping arm. 

As if noticing the movement, the arm shot forward, clawing against Mabel, raking it's gargantuan fingers down her sweater. Pacifica yanked Mabel back behind the cover of a nearby tree, leaving Bill's arm dangling from the portal. 

Mabel whipped around, clinging to Pacificas shoulders. "He- he's back," she breathed, stating the obvious. Her easy eyes were now stretched wide, her composure lost almost immediately. Where only half an hour before she had been taking Pacifica on a bike ride up the canyons, singing along to her ancient MP3 player, she was now rigid and tense. And who could blame her? Weirdmageddon had caused trauma to all of Gravity Falls, but the Pines family had gone through the most and most of them suffered night terrors as a result. The past summer had been better than the one directly following the Oddpocalypse, but judging by Mabel's complete loss of composure, the scars were still tender. She swallowed thickly. "We. We have to stop him."

Pacifica had been raised in an unhealthily strict environment. She had been held by her parents side in favor for societal expectations that only applied to the 1%-- laces that left pink marks in her skin and hairspray that filled her lungs and plans that cast her as the only heir to a trillion dollar fortune crisscrossed her eyes, blinding her to the inevitable tantrums and giggles and childish humor she should have been naturally experiencing. This led to her having a skewed idea of how she should act, and how people should see her. It wasn't until Mabel and Dipper befriended her that she realized just how off-kilter her point of view was. It wasn't until she was laughing at the stupid things in life-- the root beer float coming out of Mabel's nose and the look on Dipper's face when he got an idea and, eventually, Candy's laugh and Grenda's flirting techniques and Wendy's dry humour and so much more-- that she realized family isnt always just the people you're related to. Laughter came easier now than when before it was smothered with careful conditioning to look, act, and be perfect. 

This conditioning made normal life almost impossible-- Pacifica had accepted that she'd never live a "normal" life. Luckily, so had Mabel and the rest of her new family. She still had to remind herself that you don't have to act all of the time. 

Sometimes, however, acting was necessary. 

"We have to stop him," Mabel repeated. The inky arm was still trying to find them, having resorted to thrashing mindlessly, tearing the landscape in reach apart. 

Pacifica shook her head, prying her shoulders from Mabel's frightened grip. "No. You and your brother need to stop him." She darted over to their overturned bicycle. Digging through their bags, she pulled out the llama hair sweater and tugged it over her head. 

Turning around, she found Mabel gawking at her. "What? Pacifica, I can't leave you!" 

Pacifica took a deep breath, remembering twelve years of acting lessons and letting her instincts take hold. "You have to. It was you and Dipper who saved Gravity Falls the first time. You can do it again." 

Mabel stuttered for a moment as Pacifica took one more step towards her. 

"See you at the end of all of this, okay?" Mabel nodded wordlessly.

Pacifica went to step around her best friend when she felt a spark shoot through her veins, adrenaline hammering her heart and telling her to _move._

Her hands darted up and she dug her fingers into the neckline of Mabel's pink sweater, yanking Mabel down to her height and pressing her glittered lips against Mabel's chapped ones. 

Mabel tasted the mint of Pacifica's lip gloss (14 was still too young for lipstick, even for the Northwests) for only a moment before the same hands that had dragged her down shoved her backwards, nearly tripping Mabel.

"Now go!" Pacifica hissed, and Mabel could tell that the malice in her voice wasn't aimed at her. "Get to your brother and your uncles and save Gravity Falls again!" The blonde darted around their cover, pulling her metal kitten claws out of her pocket before tumbling into the clearing and letting herself fall to her knees.

The pitch black hand crashed around Pacifica, its fingers tearing up the rocks and sand surrounding her as it picked her up. The fingers squeezed around her, and Pacifica didn't dare make a sound as it felt her thick sweater and her long hair. 

**"FOUND YOU, SHOOTING STAR"** Cipher cried, his laughter shaking leaves from their trees and sending rocks tumbling. Pacifica gave Mabel a weak nod, fire burning in her eyes just before she got pulled through the portal. The world around the portal stretched and wavered for only a moment as the portal collapsed in on itself, colors and life being sucked in and simulaneously pushed away before snapping back into the flora it normally looked like. 

Mabel stood shakiliy from behind her cover. She stumbled towards the bicycle, her throat going numb. Her eyes stung with oncoming tears.

Mabel huffed and dragged the heel of her palms against her eyes. If Pacifica faced Bill again so strongly, then dammit, so could she. Mabel righted the bicycle and pushed off, slowing only dodge the largest of debris before speeding down the mountain trail. Already she could see the fires burning near the Gravity Falls' main thoroughfare and smell the sulfur in the breeze.

As Mabel aggressively switched the bikes gear as the trail leveled out, she could still taste mint on her lips.


End file.
